But overall iPad sales will soar during the holiday season

iPad Nibbler: A Piper Jaffray (NYSE:PJC) analyst predicts that Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iPad Mini will take a bite out of standard-size iPad sales, AppleInsider notes. Gene Munster says for every five iPad Minis Apple sells, it will sell one less full-size iPad. He says Apple could sell as many as 5 million iPad Minis in the holiday quarter, slicing full-size iPad sales by 1 million units. With Apple expected to launch the smaller-screen iPad at a media event scheduled for Oct. 23, Munster has increased his total December-quarter sales forecast for iPads of all sizes by 4 million to a total of 25 million iPads. Looking forward, he expects Apple to sell 95 million iPads in calendar 2013, up from earlier estimates of 86.5 million.

iPhone Challenges: Unnamed sources inside Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn told The Wall Street Journal that the iPhone 5 is “the most difficult device Foxconn has ever assembled.” Problems resulting from the production of the new phone have constrained supplies. The Foxconn source says the company is gradually overcoming the issues and the production is improving steadily. The production issues relate to quality control difficulties. Some users have complained that the iPhone 5′s casing is more easily scratched than previous models.

Political Football: Apple’s outsourcing of product manufacturing to Asian partners was mentioned in last night’s presidential debate, the Washington Post noted. Debate moderator Candy Crowley of CNN, cited iPads, Macs and iPhones when she posed the final question to President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney at the end of their town-hall-style exchange. Noting that those products were all manufactured overseas, Crowley asked both candidates what they would do to return such jobs to the U.S. Romney accused China of cheating at international trade, but did not cite a specific plan to bring manufacturers back to the U.S. President Obama conceded that some manufacturing jobs were simply gone forever, but said that the U.S. shouldn’t worry about losing low-skill, low-paying jobs.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.